For the past couple of hours I have been facing problems while accessing both Twitter and Facebook. The site seems to work at times and is down at times.

Twitter Clients are also facing a similar problem and I have seen people complaining that their tweets are missing and that follow/unfollow is not working properly too.

Several users are also complaining about Facebook not working properly since Yesterday. When I tried it this morning it worked perfectly fine, however, right now the site throws up a blank page to me.

I tried checking if it is a universal problem and it actually is. In fact during writing this post several of my friends tweeted saying that they were also facing similar problems with Facebook.

Twitter’s status blog says that they are aware of the problem and are working on it. However, there are no such updates from Facebook. Hopefully, these companies are not making an April Fool out of us.

Last month, Twitter managed to create an uproar over an update to it’s iPhone app because of an advertising bar, which was quickly termed as #Dickbar. The problem users faced was that it overlapped tweets and mentions and was annoying users.

Twitter quickly rolled out a new update which basically made the #Dickbar less annoying, however, people were still not happy with it. Today, Twitter has rolled out a new update which basically removes the #Dickbar completely from the iPhone app.

Rather than continue to make changes to the QuickBar as it exists, we removed the bar from the update appearing in the App Store today. We believe there are still significant benefits to increasing awareness of what’s happening outside the home timeline. Evidence of the incredibly high usage metrics for the QuickBar support this. For now, we’re going back to the drawing board to explore the best possible experience for in-app notification and discovery.

Twitter basically removed the #Dickbar temporarily and will continue working on something new which might be release in a future version. However, for now the annoyance is gone. Go ahead and update your Twitter iPhone app to get rid of the #Dickbar.

Looks like another one of those Facebook Scam is currently under way. Users are posting messages saying that "hey, i just made a photoshop of you, check it out :P [link redacted]".

The above Facebook scam is more like a virus because it installs an app in your Facebook profile and then redirects you to a page where you have to fill out a survey which will make money for the scammer.

This message is also spreading rapidly through Facebook Chat so don’t click on such messages even when you receive them through your friends in Facebook chat.

If you have clicked on the link, you will have to remove an application from your profile called soothio.co.cc or ratenry.info from your Profile to stop it from further affecting you and your friends. Learn more about removing apps from Facebook.

A new Facebook scam is underway and it is more enticing than earlier one’s I have seen. The scam basically is about an Italian journalist; Marika Fruscio showing her breasts on Italian TV!.

If you think that this is something you want to watch, I would advise you to say away since there is no such video and you will basically be spamming your friends by liking the page automatically and posting it to your wall.

A quick search on Facebook shows that the scam is definitely enticing because tons of people are clicking on it already. Rest assured you aren’t getting to look at any videos showing breasts, so please don’t click on it.

Avoiding such scams is not easy on Facebook, but you can always follow caution. Clif had written a nice post on How To Avoid Facebook LIfeJacking Scams, it is definitely a worthwhile read to find and spot such scams.

Update: There is apparently some video on YouTube, however, the link on Facebook is an actual scam.

Recently, some of my friends and family have been victims of Likejacking at Facebook. It’s a type of clickjacking in which you are tricked into Likeinga website. It’s never happened to me, but I’ve just been very lucky. After a short time studying these Likejacking scams, I can see that it’s easy to be tricked. Below are three examples and how it works.

As you can see, these are very tempting and they look like legitimate Likesfrom your friends. If you click to open them, you are taken to a page, normally with a video on it that needs to be clicked to play.

Clicking to play it, will instantly Likethis page on your wall. You can’t see it, but there’s a hidden Likebutton under your mouse cursor, no matter where you click on the page. Isn’t that sneaky?

Usually, you’ll be directed to fill out surveys before you are allowed to see a video. The hackers get paid for getting people to fill them out.

A new worm has spread on Twitter and is spreading like wildfire. Users are spreading messages saying "Have you heard of HCGdiet? AMAZING AND IT WORKS, I lost 2lbs in the last 3 days [link redacted]" to their friends.

This is a spam message so please do not click on the message. A quick Twitter search shows that an number of people have been affected by this and the number of updates that are coming through are astonishing.

First of all don’t click on this link or you might just spread the work yourself. Second, tell your friends who have posted this update to delete the message and reset their passwords if possible.

Update: The website in question is a landing page for some sort of dietary medicine. However, the page has scam written all over it so don’t click on anything. I am trying to investigate on how this worm is spreading and will update this post shortly with more information.

Today, Twitter has officially brought back that feature for everyone and now allow users to switch to HTTPS browsing by making a change to their settings. By default, Twitter will start using the HTTPS protocol for any validations done through them and also in the official Twitter apps for iPhone and iPad.

However, mobile users will have to forcefully load https://mobile.twitter.com to make use of the HTTPS feature. Twitter is working on using HTTPS for mobile users who select the above option automatic in future.

Using HTTPS is a good way to encrypt your data while you browse on the internet and this move is definitely good. Other major providers which provide HTTPS support include Facebook, Gmail and Hotmail.

Facebook has been supporting Twitter like @ tagging while writing new updates or wall posts. This helped users to mention their friend in their updates. However, annoyingly this feature was missing in their commenting system.

So if you wanted to reply to a specific person, you could not tag them. Instead, you would have to use @name to ensure that your comment was directed to the right person.

A little while earlier, I was trying to explain @ tagging to someone when I saw that the @ tagging actually works in comments too. This is definitely good news, because users will not be able to directly mention people in their comments.

Comment tagging works similarly to how the regular tagging works. You just have to type an @ followed by the person’s name or handle and a drop-down will be displayed to you. You can then choose which person or page you want to tag in the comment. When you have tagged someone in a comment they will receive a notification saying so.

Do you like the tagging feature in Facebook? Do you think that allowing people tagging in comments would be helpful? Do feel free to tell me about your thoughts.

Most of these scams play on the gullibility of users to click on links with cleverly framed text which entice. As always, my advice is to never click on such links at all, even if they are coming from your closest friend.

As for this scam, clicking on the link takes you to a website where you a video is displayed with the message, “Please watch this video only if you are 16 years or older”. As a strong warning, I would ask you to not click on the play button as it will then automatically post a message on your wall and then ask you to fill out a survey through which they will make money.

Please feel free to share this message with your friends and family so that they don’t fall into clicking on the enticing messages.

After a week of lull, I came across a new Facebook scam which is spreading rapidly among users. The new scam posts an update or likes a web page on Facebook about a Miley Cyrus video.

The new Facebook scam is spreading by posting a link which is reportedly a video of Miley Cyrus with a message "SICK! I lost all respect for Miley Cyrus when I watched this video!" or "SICK! I lost all respect for Miley Cyrus when I watched this video! must above 18 to see this video)@ [link redacted]".

I am seeing about 40-50 people liking this site and link every minute. As usual, do not click on enticing links like these, please make sure to check out earlier Facebook Scams too to learn more about protecting yourself on Facebook.

Do feel free to share this post with your friends and family so that they are aware of it and do not click on the links. I’ll be updating this post shortly with more information about the scam.